VIRTUAL POCKET WATCH MUSEUM DAY 74, cal 97, BNB

I cannot blame Tonny, for his love of the Calibre 97. It's a particularly
handsome movement and I have a few watches in my collection with this movement
(including the BNB - National Bank of Bulgaria watch which Tonny posts today.

The Watch

The watch I opt to share with you today to compliment Tonny's Cal. 97 is a
stainless steel (Staybrite Steel) Cal. 97 timepiece.

When I first saw it, I was attracked to its very flat lines and thin case, and
of course as you see on the photo here I understood that we would need to have
the dial restored.

In the photo below, you can see the straight edge case side and exectly how
thin this watch is (here, standing on it's side).

The Cal. 97 movement was in pretty good condition and she would restore
nicely. Photo here of the movement before any work was done on this watch.

Then, just as the watch was in the mail on it's way to me, a very similar
watch which was NOS - New Old Stock, complete with box came up and I could not
resist that timepiece. Same case, different and much clearer dial - so, I
secured it.

A side by side comparison here below.

So this then the reason why the Cal. 97 on the right above did not get put
into the restoration program.

I will post more detail of the other watch and the strory behind the story of
these two watches on another day - but for now, enjoy the Cal. 97 for all its
beauty - 100% Probuse Scafusia,

Oh, and in case you are interested, the watch on the right above dates from
1956.

Tonny

This is a gorgeous watch :o)

Tonny and Mark,

I wonder how many of the gold plated watches were ordered by the Bulgarian
National Bank.

It came to my mind because obviously IWC changed its strategy of not
delivering gold plated pocket watches.

Or are there other exceptions besides the Bulgarian ones?

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).

Amazing watches MarkL

Adrian, when I uncovered the 1st BNB Watch, David was amazed to find back in
the archives that it was sold in a gold plated case.

I have only one other time come accross an IWC advertised pocketwatch in a
plated case, which apparently came out of Schaffhausen.

Dear all

it is a fairytale IWC sold no watches in gold filled cases.

I know such watches predating the year 1900 and in all periods afterwards here
and there rolled gold case show up in the books and on the market (In fact
already with Jones we see goldfilled cases, but these watches do not count as
IWC only sold movements and the cases were fitted by the purchaser).

For avoidance of doubt: IWC itself made no cases up to the 1980s. So all IWC
vintage pocket watches have cases supplied by third parties. Most of the cases
were ordered by IWC and IWC sold complete watches. But a substantial amount of
mere movements were sold at all times to customers. who sourced cases
themselves.

So IWC pocket watches in gold filled cases are not often seen. And as the
value of the case is zero many of the existing ones have been dismounted and
put into wristwatch cases in the last two decades as the movement alone was
worth more than the complete watch under suspicion to be fake as the knowledge
of all original gold filled IWC pocket watches ist not widespread.

Regards

Th. Koenig

A few words on the Jones pocket watches with a gold filled case, if I may. It
is known by most collectors that all Jones watches left IWC as a movement
only.

Approximately half of the first movements made by Jones were exported to the
US and the other half of the movements were finished by Seeland and the
majority of these were cased and sold in Europe, but not cased in the IWC
factory.. Only the first to the US exported movements received in America a
gold case or a coin silver case with one of the 4-5 known 'IWC' stamps. This
suggests for some collectors that such signed case was made by IWC, but it was
not. One of the reasons to export only the movement and not a complete watch
was the typical purchase policy of the American customer about how to buy a
watch in a jewel store. First the movement was selected. Thereafter the
customer was offered to select a fitting case of his choice. During the Jones
era, there were at least 20 factories in the US which made watch cases only.
It is unknown to me when the habit to sign a case with one of the described
'IWC' stamps was abandonned but there are many Jones in the US with a 14 or
18kt gold case which were unsigned or signed with the stamp of a case
manufacturer. To mention a few B.W.C.Co. stands for Brooklyn Watch Case
Company, W.W.C.Co for Wadsworth Watch Case. Company etc.

Of course, like in Europe, many gold cases have been removed for their scrap
value but it is not likely that after that again another gold case from
B.W.C.Co or W.W.C.Co has been mounted. Some Jones watches found in the US have
a gold filled case. The technique is typical for the U.S. and for England. Two
thin plates of gold are pressed on a brass plate which forms the inner base of
the case. Most factories guaranteed the customer that the gold plates could
withstand at least 15-20 years of normal wear or tear, but thereafter the
underlying brass could become visible on the place where most of the friction
could be expected : the middle of the case covers and near the crown. In
England this technique was called rolled gold. The guilded cases on the main
land of Europe used the gold plated technique : a thin layer of gold was
applied by putting the case in a bath where through electrolysis a thin layer
of pure gold was added.

In the 'Jones' book by Seyffer, Koenig and Myers several gold filled cases are
shown. How can a collector know whether such case was really the first case or
a case that had been applied after removal of the first genuine gold case. For
that the collector should examine thoroughly the details : how tight is the
movement fitting?, Are there any indications that the movement could come from
another movement : extra holes for case screws,
etc.This
figure is from the 'Jones' book. These are the stamps seen in Jones cases but
where the case and the stamp has not been applied in the IWC factory. These
'original' stamps are never seen in a gold filled case.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc).